CUPE is calling on the province to fund hospitals, including the North Bay Regional Health Centre, at their real operating costs.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees and it’s hospital division, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, say patient access to hospital care and services will diminish if the province goes ahead with cuts that they say in 2023 will climb to $32 million at the local hospital.

This after they looked at fiscal information from Ontario’s financial accountability office and the province’s own budget numbers.

“There is nothing left to trim,” says Michael Hurley, president of OCHU/CUPE. “The Conservatives promised to end the problem of hallway medicine. But what we see is a pathway to increased overcrowding and an intensification of hallway medicine, and it only gets worse as we move down the timeline. We are calling on the Conservatives, including Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, to honour their commitment and to fund hospitals at least at their real operating costs.”

 

(File photo by Linda Holmes/BayToday.ca)

Filed under: CUPE, OCHU